In mainland China , Skype has been operated by a joint venture with TOM Online for about 9 years. Now, TOM-Skype announces Microsoft will take operating rights for Skype in China on November 24th. It is definitely a good news for both Chinese users and Microsoft.

Microsoft bought Skype in 2011. One year later, Messenger was replaced by Skype in all countries worldwide with the exception of mainland China. This year, Microsoft has positively developed Skype mobile apps, and packed Skype service into its products, including Outlook.com, Office 365 Home Premium, Surface 2/Pro 2. Again, mainland China is the exception.

Unfortunately, in mainland China, the Skype apps are all made available by TOM for 100 million users. These apps are different to Skype international versions, known as “modified” versions for censorship. Moreover, there is no Skype app in neither Windows Phone nor Windows Store in China.

ALL these might change after Microsoft takes operating rights for Skype. One Microsoft, One Skype.